


Why can’t you be more like your sister?

by NerdGirl07



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: I felt bad for Minnie May in 3.08, Jealousy, Light Angst, Low Self Esteem, Sisterly Love, not feeling good enough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 17:43:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdGirl07/pseuds/NerdGirl07
Summary: “Why can’t you be more like your sister, Minnie May?”She’d been asked that question her entire life, and it hurt every time.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Why can’t you be more like your sister?

Diana Barry had always been a perfect little girl, even when she was a baby. She hardly ever cried, and was so sweet and lovable she had captured the hearts of the entirety of Avonlea within the week.

By the time she was two years old Diana was already a model for good behaviour. Clean and tidy always, unlike most of the Avonlea youngsters, even those a little older than herself.

By the time she was six years old, Diana Barry was so perfect she ended up getting anything she wanted and more handed to her without ever having to ask for anything. Prim and proper, and polite to a fault Diana Barry was the sweetheart of Avonlea, the epitome of perfection, and the girl that Avonlea mothers wished most for their children to befriend. She was her parents pride and joy, perfection, and her parents were smug even when she was only six- because Diana was so perfect she would certainly marry well. A child so perfect would certainly grow into a woman even more perfect. A woman any millionaire would surely beg to marry.

When Diana was eight her younger sister Minnie May was born. Minnie May was a normal baby, fussy but not overly so. However, for the Barry parents, who were used to having Diana she was an absolute handful. 

“I wish she was more like Diana.” Mrs. Barry remarked to her husband one night as she was woken up once again by the three month old baby.

It was the first time such a remark was made. But it certainly wasn’t the last.

By the time Minnie May was four, Diana had met her new best friend, the orphan girl Anne. Minnie May thought Anne much more interesting than Diana. Diana was always so perfect and boring, she knew exactly what to say and how to act to make everyone happy; Anne was interesting because she was so good at making trouble, even when she wasn’t trying too. One time Anne gave Diana something that made her giggly, and smell, and be altogether much less perfect than usual for a few hours. It was very funny but Diana was not allowed to see Anne for a long time after that, and she acted more perfect and boring than usual to try and be allowed to see Anne again. 

When she got croup it was the first time Minnie May had seen Diana anything less than absolutely calm and collected. Minnie May herself was very sick, but she remembered Diana being frantic and worried and Anne showing up even though she wasn’t allowed to be at their house. Anne made her, Minnie May feel better and then Anne and Diana were friends again and everything went back to normal. Except now Minnie May watched Diana, because Diana wasn’t as perfect as she pretended to be, and nobody seemed to know or realize it. Other than Minnie May of course.

Almost a year after the Currant Wine Incident, Minnie May was told by her mother that she and Diana were going to be finished by her instead of going to finishing school in Paris. This provided many problems for Minnie May.

Diana was good at everything. Especially the stuff she and Minnie May were taught in their finishing lessons. Diana could pour tea without spilling a drop, just as easily as she could prove her perfect posture by balancing a stack of books on her head effortlessly as she curtsied. On the other hand, the teapot was heavy and Minnie May ended up spilling it all over the white tablecloth, earning her an unimpressed scolding from her mother as well as a badly disguised disgusted look. By the time a single book had toppled off her head from her head for the millionth time Minnie May was becoming used to defeated sighs and annoyed looks from her mother. The next time the book hit the floor her mother glared at her.

“Why can’t you be more like your sister, Minnie May? Diana mastered the book days ago!”

For a while no one at her house loved each other anymore. Her mother was hostile and rude, her father withdrawn and sullen. Diana was still perfect in front of them, but behind closed doors she was harried and angry. Minnie May stores this as information that Diana wasn’t as perfect as she pretended to be. She, Minnie May, had been keeping track of such things ever since she’d had croup, and her efforts had redoubled when her mother started telling her to be more like Diana.

The day after she wet her bed everybody started loving each other again, and the finishing lessons became much fewer and less demanding; however the lessons didn’t stop altogether and in moments of vexation her mother still asked her why she couldn’t be more like Diana. Pretty soon her father caught on and started saying it too.

Two years later and Minnie May started seeing more and more evidence that Diana’s ‘perfection’ was faked. By the time Diana had her first argument with their parents, telling them that she didn’t want to go to finishing school in Paris, Minnie May was sure that her parents would realize Diana wasn’t as perfect as she pretended to be. However, Diana didn’t win the argument, and the next time Minnie May’s table manners weren’t perfect her parents still told her to be more like her sister.

Diana was seeming to get less and less perfect and Minnie May was still the only one who seemed to notice, and it was driving her mad. How did no one else see Diana gossiping in church? How did her mother not see when Diana rode on a horse with Anne with her knees uncovered? How was she still considered perfect when she was going to stay overnight at that farm boys house? How did no one else notice she was faking her ankle injury? How did no one else see her flirting and exchanging gifts with the Cuthbert’s farm boy? And how on earth did no one else hear her yelling and being downright cruel to Anne in the Cuthbert’s barn?

All of these infractions, and yet Diana was still the perfect daughter and she, Minnie May wasn’t good enough. Minnie May was still forever asked why she couldn’t be as good as Diana.

After watching Diana crumble once again under their parents stifling pressure, becoming meek and polite and perfect, when Minnie May could tell she wanted nothing more than to explode; Minnie May came to a profound realization. 

Even Diana Barry don’t like being Diana Barry. 

Minnie May realized that her perfect sister, the wonderful Diana Barry was a product of her upbringing. Minnie May had been raised the same way as Diana, Diana had just been better at acting, better at playing the part of the perfect lady. However, the real Diana, buried under all that falsified perfection, hated her doll like, puppet self she was in front of her parents, in front of almost everyone. Hated that she had to always say the right thing and be the perfect person. 

And it was all too much. It was all so unfair.

Why couldn’t Diana rebel? Not be perfect for once in her life? 

Minnie May considered herself to not be a little girl anymore. She was seven after all. The cute little kid/baby of the family thing hadn’t lasted long although it was kind of useful while it lasted. Now though she was very much not a baby, and made it a rule never to cry. She as a general rule found the sniveling, crybabies in her class very annoying and vowed to be nothing like them. However, this whole realization and everything was just too much so yes, she did end up crying. Alone. In her sisters wardrobe of all places, because it was small, and cozy, and the only place in the entire house where she was hidden enough that no one could see her cry. Even her mother couldn’t find her, though she had been walking through the house calling for her for a while before she gave up.

Diana was out with aunt Jo, so Minnie May didn’t have to worry about her. 

Until... she did.

Sobbing in her solitary misery Minnie May didn’t hear the door open or her sister come in. However, she did notice when her sister opened the door of the cupboard she was hidden in and dropped to her knees beside her. 

“Minnie May! Tell me what’s wrong!” Diana said urgently. The picture perfect, concerned sister.

Of course.

“It’s not fair!” Minnie May sobbed. “Why do have to say things that aren’t try and pretend to be who everybody wants you to be all the time?”

“It’s just the way things are.” Diana soothed. 

“No, I mean why do YOU?” Minnie May accused. “Because it’s- I’M supposed to be like you!”

“Why can’t you be more like your sister, Minnie May?” She mocked in a high falsetto, an awful impression of their mother.

“Well, I DON’T WANT TO!” Minnie May sobbed. “And YOU don’t even like being you. You just pretend. And pretending is lying, and lying’s BAD!”

Minnie May climbed out of the wardrobe and fled the room crying, leaving a very concerned and thoughtful Diana Barry behind.

Later that day Diana Barry shocked the Avonlea schoolchildren by taking the Queens entrance exams. A few days later she shocked her parents and the rest of Avonlea by denouncing finishing school and announcing she was going to college with her friends, or to music school to become a pianist. Aunt Jo would pay and let her stay at her Mansion.

After that fateful day Diana Barry no longer made an effort to be perfect. And Minnie May was never again told to be more like her sister. 

But, Minnie May decided she would like to be more like her sister. 

She decided that she would like to be free and spirited, to speak her mind and stand up for herself and others. Minnie May decided to flirt with farm boys and love freely, letting herself decide who to court and who to marry if she wanted to, and who her friends would be. Minnie May decided to make her own decisions, and follow her own dreams, not her mother’s. To not let anyone push her around or put her down. And never again tell her to be more like someone else. She was Minnie May Barry, her own person, but her biggest role model was her sister. Whenever Minnie May was feeling unsure she decided to be more like her sister. Because her sister was pretty much the greatest person Minnie May knew.


End file.
